Greeley City Council to introduce lease authorizing bill

The special meeting will take place at 5 p.m. Tuesday night at the Greeley-Evans School District 6 headquarters, 1025 9th Ave. The council will hold its regularly planned work session after. During that meeting, the council will hear a presentation on the Parks, Trails and Open Lands master plan and the monthly financial report.

To keep up momentum on the downtown hotel and conference center, Greeley City Council members are talking leases.

They will hold a special meeting before their work session tonight to introduce a measure that gives them the authority to rent out a piece of the city's property.

The hotel and conference center is slated for the block where the Lincoln Annex now sits at 919 7th St. The plan is for Greeley to lease that land to developers. The two groups already have drawn up an agreement for ground lease and parking management, according to city documents.

Colorado law requires city leaders pass an ordinance authorizing lease negotiations and explain why the deal would be in the municipality's best interest.

Greeley's charter requires laws like these to be introduced two weeks before the hearing so residents have time to study up before coming out to speak, said Victoria Runkle, who serves as the city's assistant city manager and finance director.

Without the special meeting, the council would have to wait until the April 19 meeting.

Officials bought a handful of properties along 11th Avenue and 11th Street, west of the current city hall. This is the block where the consolidated offices would go. City officials plan to build the complex in two phases. The first will house the offices that were booted out of the Lincoln Annex, including the city council chambers, the municipal court and the information technology department. Fire station No. 1 also was displaced, but it's getting a new home at the old Safeway location, 1122 11th Ave.

Planners hope the second phase will hold all of the other administrative offices. That project will be funded separately.

What’s next?

The special meeting will take place at 5 p.m. Tuesday night at the Greeley-Evans School District 6 headquarters, 1025 9th Ave. The council will hold its regularly planned work session after. During that meeting, the council will hear a presentation on the Parks, Trails and Open Lands master plan and the monthly financial report.